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Celgene and Exscientia enter 3-year AI drug discovery collaboration focused on accelerating drug discovery in oncology and autoimmunity

On March 21, 2019 Exscientia, a world-leading Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, reported that it has entered a three-year AI drug discovery partnership with leading biopharma company Celgene, including an initial $25 million upfront payment and eligibility to receive substantial milestones based on the clinical, regulatory and commercial success of the program (Press release, Exscientia, MAR 21, 2019, View Source [SID1234553912]). In addition, Exscientia is due to receive tiered royalties on net sales on any product resulting from the collaboration. Exscientia will apply its full-stack AI drug discovery capabilities to the execution of the entire project – from gene to the drug candidate.

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The collaboration will use AI to accelerate the discovery of small molecule therapeutic drug candidates for three therapeutic programmes for Celgene in the areas of oncology and autoimmunity.

Exscientia will use its cutting-edge Centaur Chemist AI drug discovery platform, which has demonstrated its unparalleled capabilities on multiple projects and its ability to reduce the timelines by at least three-quarters to discover pre-clinical drug candidates. Applying AI to improve the speed of delivery of new treatments for patients is a key goal of this collaboration.

This deal extends Exscientia’s list of partnerships with blue chip pharma and biotech companies, with existing collaborations involving Roche, GSK, Sanofi and Evotec, cementing Exscientia’s reputation as the partner of choice in the rapidly developing field of AI-driven drug discovery. At the start of this year, the Oxford based Exscientia secured a $26 million Series B investment to expand its capabilities, develop its platform and build its proprietary drug pipeline.

Professor Andrew Hopkins, CEO of Exscientia, commented: "We’re incredibly proud to collaborate with Celgene and to sign another partnership with a key industry player, reinforcing our place at the forefront of AI drug discovery. Today, patients can wait more than ten years from initial drug discovery to its availability as a treatment. With autoimmune diseases and cancer rates increasing, the pharmaceutical industry’s R&D productivity needs to dramatically improve – and technology is a key part of this. Since our pioneering Nature papers in the field, we have been developing our AI platform on the principle that AI combined with human creativity can significantly accelerate the drug discovery process and thus drastically improve access of new drugs to the market. We’re excited to work with Celgene to drive this transformational change in new therapeutic areas."

BANKRUPTCY OR RECEIVERSHIP

On March 21, 2019, MabVax Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. (the "Company") reported that it filed a voluntary petition for reorganization relief under Chapter 11 of Title 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (the "Bankruptcy Code") in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the "Bankruptcy Court") (Case No. 19-10603 (CSS)) (Press release, Blueprint Medicines, MAR 21, 2019, View Source [SID1234537257]). The Company continues to manage and operate its business as a debtor in possession pursuant to Bankruptcy Code Sections 1107 and 1108. The Company intends to sell substantially all of its assets pursuant to Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code in the sixty days following the filing of its Chapter 11 petition under a Bankruptcy Court supervised sales process and, subject to sales proceeds and remaining assets, could convert its case to Chapter 7, at which point a Chapter 7 trustee will be appointed by the Bankruptcy Court.

Epic Sciences to Present New Data at AACR 2019 Demonstrating Expansion of Functional Cell Profiling Technology into New Indications including Breast, Lung and Prostate Cancer

On March 21, 2019 Epic Sciences, Inc. reported that new data will be presented at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2019, in Atlanta, Georgia, March 29 to April 4, 2019 (Press release, Epic Sciences, MAR 21, 2019, View Source [SID1234534564]). The data from multiple studies and indications demonstrate the feasibility of Epic’s Functional Cell Profiling (FCP) technology to predict patients’ response to cancer immunotherapies and drugs that target DNA damage repair pathways.

Epic’s FCP technology platform identifies and characterizes all circulating tumor cells in a blood sample to link their response or resistance to several drug classes. Following the highly successful development of Epic’s proprietary AR-V7 test for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, currently marketed as the Oncotype DX AR-V7 Nucleus Detect test, the company and its research partners are utilizing the FCP platform to analyze biomarkers to guide treatment decisions in breast cancer and small-cell lung cancer, expanding into new areas of unmet need.

"For years, Epic Sciences has been transforming late-stage prostate cancer treatment with our powerfully predictive Functional Cell Profiling technology by providing a comprehensive view of how populations of cancer cells change under selective pressure of different drug classes," said Katherine Atkinson, Chief Commercial Officer at Epic Sciences. "At AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper), we are presenting new data that demonstrates our technology’s significant value can be applied to new indications and drug classes in development, in addition to late stage prostate cancer, potentially improving the lives of many more patients."

Following are the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) 2019 posters and presentations:

Oral Presentation:

Title: Liquid Biopsies: From Validation to Clinical Utility
Session Description: Discussion of the development and clinical application of validated circulating tumor cell (CTC) and cell-free DNA assays to determine prognosis, predict response to treatment, identify mechanisms of resistance to guide future treatment, and assess drug effects.
Chairperson & Presentation: Howard I. Scher, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Predictive biomarkers in circulating tumor cells to direct management of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC)
Session Date and Time: April 1, 2019, 2:05 pm – 2:30 pm ET

Poster Presentations:

Title: HER2, AR protein expression and chromosomal instability in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients (pts)
Session Category and Title: Clinical Research: Current Developments in Non-invasive Biomarkers for Assessment of Cancer 1
Session Date and Time: Sunday, March 31, 2019 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm ET

Title: Genomic instability as a marker of poor prognosis in advanced prostate cancer: Subclonal insights from whole-genome sequencing of single circulating tumor cells
Session Category and Title: Clinical Research: Current Developments in Non-invasive Biomarkers for Assessment of Cancer 1
Session Date and Time: Sunday, March 31, 2019, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm ET

Title: Characterization of SLFN11 protein expression in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) prior to platinum based chemotherapy
Session Category and Title: Clinical Research: Circulating and Cell-free Biomarkers for Diagnosis and Monitoring of Cancer 2
Session Date and Time: Monday, April 1, 2019, 8:00 am – 12:00 pm ET

Title: Comparison of the Epic CTC HRD assay vs. tumor DDR mutations in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients (pts)
Session Category and Title: Clinical Research: Circulating and Cell-free Biomarkers for Diagnosis and Monitoring of Cancer 3
Session Date and Time: Monday, April 1, 2019, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm ET

Title: Single-cell analyses reveal increasing intratumoral heterogeneity as an essential component of treatment resistance in small-cell lung cancer
Session Category and Title: Tumor Biology: Tumor Evolution and Heterogeneity 1
Session Date and Time: Tuesday, April 2, 2019 8:00 am – 12:00 pm ET

Title: Evaluation of pharmacokinetics of proxalutamide, a novel androgen receptor antagonist, in treatment for mCRPC patients via CTC enumeration and AR biomarker analysis
Session Category and Title: Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics: Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics/Preclinical Toxicology
Session Date and Time: Tuesday, April 2, 2019, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm ET

Title: Simultaneous quantification of activated immune cells and PD-L1 expressing circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood of cancer patients receiving checkpoint inhibitor therapy
Session Category and Title: Immunology: Biomarkers and Immune Monitoring
Session Date and Time: Tuesday, April 2, 2019, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm ET

Biocept to Release 2018 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Financial Results and Host Investor Conference Call on March 28, 2019

On March 21, 2019 Biocept, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIOC), a molecular diagnostics company commercializing and developing proprietary liquid biopsy tests that provide clinically actionable information to physicians to improve cancer treatment, reported that it will release financial results for the three and 12 months ended December 31, 2018, after the market closes on Thursday, March 28, 2019 (Press release, Biocept, MAR 21, 2019, View Source [SID1234534563]). The Company will host a conference call for the investment community to discuss the results and answer questions at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time (1:30 p.m. Pacific time).

Individuals interested in participating on the conference call may do so by dialing (855) 656-0927 for domestic callers, (855) 669-9657 for Canadian callers, or (412) 902-4109 for other international callers. Those interested in listening to a webcast of the live conference call may do so by visiting View Source

A replay of the conference call will be available for 48 hours following the conclusion of the call by dialing (877) 344-7529 for domestic callers, (855) 669-9658 for Canadian callers, or (412) 317-0088 for other international callers, and entering the replay access code 10128915. A webcast replay will be available for 90 days at http://ir.biocept.com/events.cfm.

Cellular Biomedicine Group Announces Pricing of Public Offering of Common Stock

On March 21, 2019 Cellular Biomedicine Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: CBMG) (CBMG or the Company), a biopharmaceutical firm engaged in the drug development of immunotherapies for cancer and stem cell therapies for degenerative diseases, reported the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 1,029,412 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $17.00 per share (Press release, Cellular Biomedicine Group, MAR 21, 2019, View Source [SID1234534562]). In addition, the underwriters have been granted a 30-day option to purchase up to 154,411 additional shares of common stock at the public offering price, less the underwriting discounts and commissions. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on or about March 25, 2019, subject to customary closing conditions. The gross proceeds to CBMG from this offering are expected to be approximately $17.5 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by CBMG. CBMG intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for preclinical studies, clinical trials, continued technology platform development, as well as for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. and Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering.

The shares of common stock described above are being offered by CBMG pursuant to its shelf registration statement on Form S-3 that was previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (or SEC) and declared effective by the SEC on June 17, 2016. A preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to and describing the terms of the offering has been filed with the SEC and is available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Copies of the final prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to this offering may also be obtained, when available, by sending a request to: Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., Attention: Capital Markets, 499 Park Ave., 6th Floor, New York, New York 10022, or by email at [email protected]; or Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Attention: Syndicate Department, 777 East Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202, or by email at [email protected].

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities of CBMG, nor will there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.